The city of God

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Psalm 87

1. Of the Korachites. A psalm. 
A song, its foundation on the holy mountains.

2. The LORD loves the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

3. Of you glorious things are spoken, O city of God.   Selah.

4. I recall Rahab and Babylon to those who acknowledge Me; behold: Philistia and Tyre, with Nubia―“This one was born there.”

5. But of Zion, it is said, “Every single person was born in it.” He, the Most High, establishes it.

6. The LORD records in the census of peoples: “This one was born there.”   Selah.

7. And they, singing as they dance: “All my roots are in you.”

Translation: Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal.

PHOTOS (all are enlargeable): 

1. Zion Gate
2. Heinrich Bünting's map of 1581 with Jerusalem (Zion) as  center of the world.
Please enlarge the photo to appreciate the ceramic map.
More about this work in a previous post.
3-4. Singers/drummers/shofar blowers lead the joyful procession through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City down to the Western Wall where the boy will become a bar mitsvah.
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This post is for Robert Geiss' weekly PsalmChallenge at daily athens photo.
You are welcome to join in illustrating the Book of Psalms.
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(Also linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors meme.)

Remembering

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For today's International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust --

Sometimes art says it better than words.

At the museum in Hechal Shlomo, seat of the Chief Rabbinate, in Jerusalem.

The assembled elements.

And from all this brokenness and after the screams . . .

. . . our people's hope--Jerusalem--appears.

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And those too soon dead, perhaps they see the Heavenly Jerusalem.

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Wishing peace

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In the new year 2010 -- our hope and wish for the world:
PAX . . . peace . . . shalom .

For James' "Weekend Reflections" --
stained glass windows reflected in the door of a confession booth.

And our hope and wish for Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
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A shop on Via Dolorosa Street

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How can it be Friday already??
Time again for James' meme, "Weekend Reflections."

I was trying to get a picture of an example of the famous Armenian tile work in a ceramics shop window in Jerusalem's Old City.
Now I see a whole street came with it, along with the sign Via Dolorosa Street.
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Center of the clover, City Hall

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For ABC Wednesday -- a ceramic clover-leaf near City Hall, with Jerusalem as the CENTER of the world!

(All photos are clickable for enlarging.)

This new 2008 artwork is near City Hall in Safra Square.

It is too new to be in the Jerusalem guidebooks, but I found this about the old map on which it is based:

BÜNTING'S CLOVER-LEAF MAP, 1581

"The whole world in a clover leaf, which is the crest of the city of Hannover, my beloved fatherland." This caption was given by Heinrich Bünting, native of that city, to one of his allegorical maps. 
The three continents of the Old World are shown well-divided by the seas, but connected by Jerusalem as the hub of the world because of its religious importance, especially at the time of the European wars of the Reformation. 
The blue ocean is titled "The Great Mediterranean Sea of the World"; only the Red Sea is colored red and shown separately.

 --from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website

England and Scandinavia are way up at the top.

America, the New World, is down in the lower corner. (Trust me.)

I was intent on photographing the ship and the sea monster for fine blogger Sailor Girl of Portugal who loves sailing ships.

The artist is Arman Darian, a leading artist and manufacturer of Armenian Jerusalem ceramics—panels, tiles, vases and other objects of art. Arman Komandarian was born in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1971.

More about him at his lovely website.

The woodcut of the 1581 original clover-leaf map by Heinrich Bünting.
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I will be posting another modern, but more traditional, Armenian tile work and more about the history of the Armenians in Jerusalem in the near future, God willing. Stay tuned.

Shalom from the center of the world!
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